DAR ES SALAAM 1963 A New Graduate Encounters an Emerging African Nation NEW!
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Presented as an anecdotal compilation from scrawled diary notes and retreived letters home, Dar es Salaam offers with honesty and the charm of youthful perception an insight into the competing currents of a new African nation seeding to find itself while escaping the suffocationg effects of colonialism.
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by Tom Torrance
ISBN#9781897508732
In the 1960s, many young people were driven by a sense of idealism, adventure, and experimentation to try to make a contribution to improve the state of the world. Tom, a recent university graduate, travelled to Tanganyika under his own steam to take a temporary position as an economist, with the salary of a local recruit. He lodged at an encampment run by the Salvation Army and dwelt in a thatched-roof hut.
In thirty-six vignettes developed from letters home and notes taken at the time, Tom has written an entertaining and educational account of his first three months in Dar es Salaam. He describes difficulties in the new job, vivid characters, and unique situations that will provide a pleasurable read even for people not familiar with the history of newly independent African countries just emerging from the shackles of colonialism.
About the Author
Tom Torrance attended University College of the University of Toronto, where he received his BA (Hon) in Political Science and Economics in 1962.
Shortly after, he was accepted for a positon as a Junior Economist with the recently independent Republic of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) at the same pay and benefits as a locally recruited Tanganyikan. He helped an international team of colleagues and Tanganyikans in the development of the First Five-Year Plan, gaining experience in planning manpower requirements, agricultural settlement scheme appraisal, and transport. On completion of a two-year local contract,k the Government of Tanzania asked the Canadian External Aid Office (now CIDA) to extend Mr. Torrance's stay as an advisor until mid-1966, continuing with the Planning Agency in the implementation phase.
With the International Labour Organization (an agency of the United Nations) in Geneva, Switzerland, he worked as an economist, assessing the employment and manpower requirements of rural developmet projects in the developing world. He married Karin Dobbratz in Geneva.
The author's career then led him to a position with the UN Secretariat in New York, and later with the World Bank, where he served in the Personnel Department.
Tom Torrance is retired and resides with his wife in Ottawa. in between regular visits to the hospital for hemodialysis, he continues his reading and writing projects, and keeps in touch with his two adult children living abroad, as well as with former friends and colleagues.
